Monday, November 21, 2011

judging by the above image, you may be thinking today's thankful post is going to be something like

I am thankful for my adorably adorable children.

I am thankful that my adorably adorable children are such good sleepers.

I am thankful blabiby blabidy blah, sentimental blah.

I AM thankful for my adorably adorable children, but my last few thankful posts have been leaning more towards the sappy side, don't you think? As much as I love thinking of all we have to be thankful for (and I am genuinely thankful), sometimes I end my posts with cheese dripping off my screen--I hope you are reading them with a side of crackers--I always do.

So today we are going to talk about things that we should all be thankful for, but in happy sappy blogland no one wants to talk about them.

The Unmentioned.

I am going to go where maybe, just maybe, no blogger has gone before.

This is deep stuff.

Deep.

I am thankful for toilets.

Uh, yeah I am. And you are too.

Sparkling white toilets in clean bathrooms with doors that close, with a roll of toilet paper (maybe on the holder the wrong way depending on who replaced it) within reach.

I have ran enough races, and used enough porta-potties to know how thankful I am for real, working toilets.

I have camped enough in the great outdoors (and while it is beautiful), I would much prefer a bathroom to a bush.

I am thankful for my toenails.

They are ugly and smashed and crooked from years of running. But this summer I had a podiatrist suggest that I have them removed (REMOVED!!!!), so I wouldn't have to worry about them, being a runner and all. WHAT?! No thank you. But ever since I have looked at them (and their lack of pedicure) and just been thankful that no matter how ugly they may be, at least they are there.

As long as we are talking ugly deformed things,

I am thankful for my feet.

My right foot is flat and hobbit like, oh, probably because there is an extra bone in it. (Please don't stop being my friend because I am sharing all my deformities with you). This spring after a race I ran, I was having some major issues with that extra bone in my foot. It kept me from running most of the summer, and it really made me realize how much I love to run....NEED to run. After it healed up I vowed to take care of my feet (with the exception of removing my toenails) so I wouldn't injure myself again.

I am thankful for push-up bras.

Self explanatory.

I am thankful for whoever the man (or lady) is that invented chips and salsa. Bless them.

I am thankful for the NBA lockout,

and how it is blessing my marriage with precious extra hours of our lives together. Bless those greedy spoiled men who won't play until they get more money. Bless them, every one.

I am thankful for the times my 4-year old gets words confused and instead of calling the mannequins we saw in the mall "mannequins", she was calling them "cannibals".

I am thankful I had the sense not to correct it, because it was HILARIOUS. Cannibals everywhere!

I am thankful for wonderful and clever television that makes us laugh and laugh and laugh and escape the world.

Thank you Community, Parks and Rec, Modern Family and Up all Night for that.

I am thankful for television remotes, because who wants to get up to change the channel. How did they survive back in olden days?

(you know, the 80s)

Also, thank you Jimmy Fallon. Can we be friends?

I am thankful for two adorably adorable children that are old enough and able to help out. I am thankful I can send them outside when it's raining to get the dog. I am thankful they will so willingly unload and sort the Costco purchases.

See, you thought I was going to get sappy about my kids there, huh?

No, I am just thankful for child labor.

Speaking of Costco,

oh dear sweet Costco, I love you.

Who knew shopping for things 20 lbs at a time could be so much fun?!

I am NOT thankful for the people who will actually shove you out of the way to get to a sample of a bean burrito.

The Costco Sample Eaters are crazy!

( I figured since this is a non-sappy post, I could include something I am not thankful for )

I am thankful for mashed potatoes.

period.

I am thankful for those few friends on facebook that, really, you only keep un-hidden because their dailyhourly play by play updates are just too perfectly detailed.

9:05"I've got a case of the Mondays!"

9:06"Gearing up to clean the bathroom! I hate cleaning the bathroom" 9:07"What's your favorite music to listen to while cleaning the bathroom?"

9:08 "MONDAY! OYE!"

9:19 (you were starting to get worried)"Bathroom cleaned! Take that!"

9:19:34 "Watch out world!"

( I am serious, I have people like this in my life, you know you do too)

Regardless, it always makes me smile.

I am thankful for cold days where I can use "oh, it's cold today, I probably won't shave my legs because I need the extra layer of warmth" as an excuse for "I just really don't want to shave my legs today."

Although I AM thankful for razors, because if I never shaved my beastly legs, then you really probably wouldn't be my friend.

I am thankful for the shameless self promotion that having my own blog allows me.

Did you know I'm photographing a cookbook for the always amazing Whitney Ingram?

Sunday, November 13, 2011

(yes, I count Friday as the weekend around here....it's like "Weekend Eve")

I am so thankful for the weekend.

After school and work and school and more school and homework and studying and blehck, my little family is back together again.

I am thankful for loud music during Saturday morning chores.

I am thankful for no schedule, no routine, no nothin.

I am thankful for friends who come to visit and eat delicious pizza with us.

I am thankful for staying up way too late watching movies and eating hot cinnamon brownies by the fire.

I am thankful for adorable kiddos in their Sunday best walking to church with umbrellas.

I am thankful for electricity!!

Oh lights and heat how I love you.

We went about 6 hours without power today, and BOY! We really take for granted how easy it is to switch on the lights, don't we?

I realize that just one week ago I declared my thankfulness for soup, but since I can't post without a picture, why not talk about soup some more!

I love that on "soup nights" I don't even have to think about dinner or plan anything out that day. I love that I can just look at what I have on hand, stir it all together in a pot and have hot bubbling soup on a cold rainy night.

Fall Veggie Soup

or "Butterfly Soup" as my kids named it

1 onion, diced

3 carrots, sliced

2 celery stalks, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup collard greens, chopped

1 cup winter squash, peeled and diced (any winter squash you have on hand--I used Red Kuri squash, but butternut, acorn, pumpkin, or any other winter favorite would work great)

Saute onion, carrots, celery, greens and squash in olive oil for a few minutes. Add in garlic and S&P. Add in all remaining ingredients except for pasta, and bring to a low boil. When soup has reached a low boil, add in pasta and simmer until pasta is done, OR if you want your soup to simmer longer (I like to let it simmer for a while) cook until pasta is just underdone, and then turn soup down all the way and let it simmer until you are ready to eat and pasta is tender.

I love soups like this because you can add as many veggies/beans/pasta as you like for a very filing meatless soup. You can swap out the beans for potatoes, add extra pasta, or whatever your family likes.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Thankful that I am so lucky to stay home and be a full time mom to my Littles.

Mom. THE mom. ME!!

There are days I wake up and realize......wait.....

....I am the one in charge here! ha!

But I love it so much, and I'm so grateful to be here every day for all the fun, messes, laughs, tears, messes, and.....messes.

We decided (because I am in charge around here) that we needed to make something yummy while brother was at school. After a little recipie digging, we chose Cinnamon Swirl Bread.

I found this recipe on the King Arthur Flour website, and decided to start from there. I changed it to use whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose, and added the vital wheat gluten and a little bit of pumpkin puree.

*Use the lesser amount in summer (or in a humid environment), the greater amount in winter (or in a dry climate), and somewhere in between the rest of the year, or if your house is climate controlled.

filling

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons unbleached all purpose flour

1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, to brush on dough

directions

1) If you're using "highly active" or active dry yeast, dissolve it with a pinch of sugar in 2 tablespoons of the lukewarm water. Let the yeast and water sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, until the mixture has bubbled and expanded. If you're using instant yeast, you can skip this step.

2) Combine the dissolved yeast (or instant yeast) with the remainder of the ingredients. Mix and knead everything together—by hand, mixer or bread machine set on the dough cycle—till you've made a smooth dough. Adjust the dough's consistency with additional flour or water as needed; but remember, the more flour you add while you're kneading, the heavier and drier your final loaf will be. If you're kneading in a stand mixer, it should take about 7 minutes at second speed, and the dough should barely clean the sides of the bowl, perhaps sticking a bit at the bottom. In a bread machine (or by hand), it should form a smooth ball.

3) Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover the bowl, and allow the dough to rise, at room temperature, until it's nearly doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Rising may take longer, especially if you've kneaded by hand. Give it enough time to become quite puffy.

4) While the dough is rising, make the filling by stirring together the sugar, cinnamon, and flour.

5) Transfer the dough to a lightly greased work surface, and pat it into a 6" x 20" rectangle.

6) Brush the dough with the egg/water mixture, and sprinkle it evenly with the filling.

10) Allow the bread to rise till it's crested about 1" over the rim of the pan, about 1 hour. Again, it may rise more slowly for you; let it rise till it's 1" over the rim of the pan, even if that takes longer than an hour. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 350°F.

11) Bake the bread for 40 to 45 minutes, tenting it lightly with aluminum foil after the first 15 minutes. The bread's crust will be golden brown, and the interior of the finished loaf should measure 190°F on an instant-read thermometer.

12) Remove the bread from the oven, and gently loosen the edges with a heatproof spatula or table knife. Turn it out of the pan, and brush the top surface with butter, if desired; this will give it a soft, satiny crust.

Allow the bread to cool completely before slicing.

I'm so thankful for the little hands that helped.

I doubled this batch (the recipe above is for one loaf) and made two loaves......because, well, we eat a lot of bread. My loaf pans are a bit larger than the pan the recipe calls for, but they turned out fine--just a little bit shorter, and less perfectly bread-shaped.

-port-a-potties as far as the eye can see-my husband dancing on a van, with strangers stopping to film him. really.

-sleeping in weird places (including, but not limited to: the van seat, the van floor, the front seat of the van w/feet out window, front seat of van w/feet on dash, a very bumpy empty lot next to a gas station, a park under a tree with a thousand people walking by watching you drool)

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